Ranthambore, India: “Holy crap! The diamonds are real!”
March 30, 2007
After Jaipur, the next stop on our trip through India was Ranthambore National Park, one of a number of parks in India inhabited by tigers. After a week in the crazy clamor of Jaipur, Hernandez was ready for a quiet break in rural India.
As we had thoroughly enjoyed the train ride to Jaipur, we decided to once again ride the rails of India when we left town. We arrived early at Jaipur station, which wasn’t a great thing as the platform was fairly disgusting. Our train was sitting there, but wasn’t yet available for boarding, so we stood around outside, with a powerful stench of urine making things distinctly uncomfortable. Luckily we distracted ourselves with some young kids, who were fascinated with me. Understandable, as India is populated by men who are 5’5” tall with black hair and dark skin, and I tower above them with a head of blonde hair and very fair skin. So, to provide entertainment Michelle took a little video of the kids on her pocket camera, and this was of course a huge hit (as it was everywhere in India), and I took on the challenge of engaging a woman who was staring at me like I was a giraffe. As always in these situations, a good time was had by all.
To our relief the train doors are finally opened, and we get into our berths. Unfortunately the stench of urine had also invaded the train, and I quickly made a note to myself to bring matches and incense on all future train rides. Hernandez was understandably a little nauseous, but thankfully the stench thinned out as we got underway, and we got into a conversation with an Indian fellow who shared our car. He used to be in the Indian army, and had an interesting perspective on everything from thieves in Jaipur (“we know about them and we’re trying to get rid of them”), to India’s relationship with Pakistan (“we would prefer peace, but if that’s not possible, we will destroy them next war”…yikes).
After the 2-hour train ride we arrived at Sawai Modhpur, a non-descript Indian town that is the gateway to Ranthambore National Park. Our lodging was the very nice Khem Vilas (more info), which we had found via tripadvisor.com, and which was run by a remarkable Indian couple, Goverdhan and his wife Usha. Goverdhan's father helped setup the Park, and Goverdhan has championed a range of wonderful projects in the community, including setting up a school and a hospital.
Like everyone who comes to Ranthambore, the reason we were here was to go out on safari and spot a tiger. Interestingly, in India (or at least in Rajasthan) you go looking for tigers in open jeeps.
"Has a tiger ever jumped into a jeep looking for an easy meal," I asked our guide.
"Not yet," he replied, with a funny crooked smile.
We went out on a safari the first morning, but no tiger. No big deal to me, as I was actually quite happy just to see the monkeys lining the road on the entry-way to the park.
We arrived back at Khem Vilas just before lunch, and find the hotel owners and another Indian couple enjoying a beer on the veranda. They invite us to join, vague introductions are made, and we get to chatting. The other couple were probably in their 30’s, very pleasant, and spoke better English than I do.
As we’re talking I’m somewhat distracted by the jewelry the woman is wearing: Huge diamond-like ear-rings, and an enormous diamond-like stone on her ring finger. The wedding ring was an impressive work of engineering, with various support rails and attachments to keep the massive rock in place. While pleasantly chatting I’m thinking to myself “How tacky! To wear huge, fake diamonds all over yourself! How can someone who seems like such a nice and intelligent person be so tacky in wearing gaudy fake jewelry!”
Well, we keep chatting. The couple said they lived in Jaipur, and since we’d just been there, we compared notes on restaurants and happenings about town. It came out that the lady was from Udaipur, so I similarly started peppering her with questions about what restaurants they liked there. After she offered-up some obtuse comments, her husband finally said “My wife’s father is the Maharajah of Udaipur, so we’ve never actually been out to eat in Udaipur.”
Cazart! She was the Princess of Udaipur! A real Princess! Her father owned the Lake Palace and all of those other amazing hotels in Udaipur! Holy crap! The diamonds are real! The diamonds are real!
I manage to keep a straight face as my brain processes all this. I made reference to having previously stayed at Shiv Niwas Palace in Udaipur, hoping to establish a bond with the Royals such that maybe I could crash at a Palace next time I was in town, but no dice.
After lunch we go out on safari again, and though we didn’t see a tiger, we saw a leopard, which everyone assured us was much more rare. Leopards are apparently nocturnal and elusive, but there it was in late afternoon, walking around not more than 50 feet away from us! At one point the leopard walked straight towards our open jeep, which we were sharing with two other couples. Sensing her apprehension, I leaned over to Hernandez, pointed towards the couple seated in front of us, and said “Remember, we don't need to outrun the leopard, we just need to outrun these guys.”
After the safari, we get back to the hotel, and our leopard-sighting makes us instant celebrities. Each night at Khem Vilas the owners and guests gather around a fire for a wonderful time of exchanging stories over beers, and I was pleased to see that my friend The Princess had joined. After some un-needed coaxing I pulled out my camera, and was suitably proud when the Princess gushed at my leopard photos.
The safari experience in India is certainly much different than in Africa. In India there is far, far less game and much less variety. However, the excitement of searching for an elusive animal, and the thrill when you find one, makes for a very worthwhile experience.
Bob’s ratings (1= terrible, 5 = OK, 10 = fantastic):
- Safari at Ranthambore: 7
- Khem Vilas (hotel): 9
Next - Delhi: The world's greatest cleanup job?